Monday, December 23, 2013

OK, I think I have all of my holiday beverages sorted out now. For the past few years I have made Isa's Matrioshka EggNog, but the problem has always been getting the perfect avocado (as this image suggests). Considering how far avocados have to travel to get all the way up here, it's no surprise. If you have a party to host and all the avocados at the store are as hard as rocks then it's no nog for you. So this year I swapped out the avocado with cashews, blended like crazy, and presto: holiday nog! For better or worse it is very much like the 99 cent cartons of eggnog we used to quaff down when I was a kid (i.e. sweet milk with nutmeg). Works for me.

METHOD
1. Place the soaked cashews and 2 cups of the almond milk in a blender. Blend until very smooth. If you are like me and have a pretty crappy blender, you can pass the mixture through some fine cheesecloth at this point to remove any graininess. Or leave it as is if you don't mind a little texture.
2. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Chill and reblend right before serving.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Another quick post because I have not posted enough calories on this blog for the holiday season. Har har. When Vegansaurus posted this recipe for vegan Irish Cream it caught my eye because Bailey's was one of my all-time faves back in the day. I'm not sure why I have not explored Irish cream before because there are a bunch of recipes for it out there on the interwebs that are easily veganized. I made the recipe linked to above, but I remember Bailey's being much sweeter. Granted, it's been a good 8 years since I have had the original version, but the combination below satisfies my food memory. The above pic is a 50/50 mix of the Irish Cream and almond milk with ice--delicious! Here is what I did, just in case you like specific measurements.

METHOD
1. Brew coffee and place into a pitcher. Blend in cocoa powder, then sugars and maple syrup until dissolved.
2. Add extract, whiskey, and coconut milk and blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Thin with almond milk if desired.
3. Refrigerate in a glass jar with a lid and serve cold. Shake jar to re-blend before serving.

Note: I made this with full-fat coconut milk. It's a bit thick and rich, so I thinned it with almond milk. I think this would work just as well with low fat coconut milk, but you might not want to thin it. Do what works for you.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

This will probably be my last post until the new year, so here is a wonderfully crisp sugar cookie with a tart cranberry filling that are pretty easy to make. There are many recipes of this kind of cookie floating around out there, so call them whatever you want (I went alliterative). Usually these kinds of doughs are chilled and then rolled, but I don't find any difference with rolling first and chilling later. In fact, I find it much easier to roll this dough first because when chilled it is pretty finicky. The cranberry filling is also a snap. If it does not set up enough to your liking, just boil it again for another minute and retry.

METHODMakes 12-18, depending on sizeCookies
1. Cream together coconut oil and margarine with a hand mixer, or stand mixer with the whisk attachment, until smooth and fluffy. Blend in extracts. Blend in icing sugar.
2. Using a wooden spoon, mix in flour and bring into a soft dough. Use your hands finish it off if needed.
3. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
4. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/8 inch thick. Using a metal cookie cutter, cut out as many shapes as you can. Using a smaller cutter, punch out the centres of half of them (these will be your tops). Re-roll dough scraps and repeat until dough is all used up. Place on prepared sheets, (using a pastry scraper to transfer), cover, and chill for about 30 mins, until firm.
5. While cookies are chilling, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake cookies one sheet at a time for 15-17 mins, until lightly golden on the edges.
6. Let cookies cool on the sheet for 5 mins, then remove to a wire rack to fully cool.

Cranberry Filling
1. Heat cranberries and orange juice to bubbling in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook for about 5 mins, mashing cranberries as they cook.
2. When cranberries are well-mashed, add sugar and turn heat to high. Cook for about 2 mins at a rapid boil, stirring constantly. Filling is ready when it drips thickly off your spoon (let it drip off the spoon when you first add the sugar and you will see what I mean).
3. Use a spoon to pass the filling through a fine mesh sieve. Place in the fridge to cool down.

Make the cookies:
1. When jam has cooled but is not cold, spread on the bases of the cookies. If the cookies puffed up too much during baking, simply flip the bottom cookie over so that the baking sheet-sides of the cookies are in the middle. Don't spread right to the edges, and mound it up a bit in the centre. Gently press a top on so that the jam spreads into the cut out middle.
2. You can store/freeze the cookies like this. When ready to serve, dust gently with icing sugar.

Comment: some people are finding the dough crumbly. The dough is a bit tricky to work with, but it also makes for a very delicate cookie. A few tips: 1. Roll first, refrigerate later. If you chill first, allow the dough to warm up before rolling. 2. Make sure you spoon and level the flour and icing sugar if you are not weighing it. 3. Add some melted margarine if everything is still crumbly.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Here is part two of my 2-part series on making Banh Mi for a holiday (or some other kind of) party. Now that you have your baguettes fresh from the oven, it's time to top them and eat! This recipe makes a lot, so if it is just for you, cut the tofu and marinade in half. You can get away with marinading the tofu, and picking the carrot/daikon, for a few hours, but it all tastes better if you make it the day before. You will have some tofu left over, so just save it for tomorrow.

METHODPrep the Tofu
1. Whisk together the marinade ingredients. You can mash the garlic and ginger together with a mortar and pestle if you desire. Place sliced tofu in a large baking dish and pour marinade over. It is OK to stack pieces of tofu on top of one another--just make sure there is marinade between the slices. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Make the Pickle
1. Bring vinegar, water, and sugar to boil in a saucepan. Add ginger, carrot, and daikon, and bring back to boiling. Remove from heat and add the star anise. Pour into a large glass jar, and bring to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Bake the Tofu
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Adjust oven racks so you can bake two baking sheets at a time.
2. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 16 pieces of tofu on each sheet. Brush generously with the marinade.
3. Bake for 10 mins, then flip tofu and brush generously with marinade. Switch the rack that the sheets are on, and bake for another 10-15 mins. Tofu should be dry and slightly crisp on the edges.

Assemble the Sandwiches and Serve
1. Cut baguettes horizontally. Spread Vegenaise liberally on the inside (not traditional, I know, but I like it). Top with tofu (I like to overlap the tofu 1/2 on the piece underneath instead of side by side). Top with sliced cucumber, and then with drained pickle. Top with chopped cilantro, if desired.
2. Slice each baguette into 8-10 pieces each and serve.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

This is part one of a two-post series on making Banh Mi for a holiday party. Yes, I know that Vietnamese sandwiches don't usually immediately jump to mind when planning a North American holiday party, but I have received very positive feedback on these. I first made them for the vegans at our faculty association's holiday fling so that we could get some protein and not get relegated to the dip-less veggie tray. They were a grand success and were enjoyed by veg and non-veg alike.

The trick is getting the right bread. First time around I made a standard french baguette. Fail. The bread was far too chewy which meant people gnawing away while toppings came shooting out everywhere (all while trying to balance a drink and talk). I have never actually had an authentic Banh Mi so I had to turn to the internets. Lots of talk of light and crispy bread, and everyone was sure there was rice flour in the dough somewhere. But few recipes. I tried using some rice flour, but the end result was always dense and chewy. So, I ended up going with a kind of baguette/hoagie roll hybrid--an enriched dough that can be made fairly quickly, has great flavour, has a soft crumb and crispy crust.

I weighed the flour, so the cup equivalents are pretty close--start with a little less and add more flour if needed. Use a scale if you have one.

This makes 3 large baguettes. If you are not having a party, half the recipe and make two smaller baguettes or a number of smaller buns. I won't lay any claim to authenticity, only tastiness.

METHOD
1. Whisk together flours, salt, and sugar. Whisk water and soy milk together, then whisk in yeast until dissolved. Add liquid ingredients to dry, add oil, and bring together into a soft dough.
2. Knead for 5-8 mins, until smooth. Shape into a ball, place in a large oiled bowl (turning dough to coat), cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 1 hr).
3. Punch down dough, reshape into a ball, then place back into the bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled again.
4. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces, trying not to degas the dough too much. Shape as you would a french baguette (about 16 inches long--whatever will fit on your baking stone), then place in a couche, mist with oil, cover (I use plastic wrap to keep the crust soft), to rise for about 45 mins, or until almost doubled.
5. While dough is rising, place a baking stone in the middle of the oven and a steam pan on the bottom rack. Preheat to 450 degrees.
6. Right before baking, slash each baguette right down the middle along the length of the baguette. Slash about 1/3 of the way into the baguette (don't slash too shallow).
7. Transfer the baguettes from the couche to the baking stone and pour 1/2 cup of hot water into the steam pan. Reduce heat to 400 degrees and bake for 10 mins. Rotate loaves and bake for another 10 mins.
8. Remove bread to a cooling rack.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

These are officially my new favourite appetizer for the holiday season. Or, make the vol-au-vent bigger and you have your entrée. The lentil filling is amazing, so don't worry if you have leftovers. I use it as a sandwich filling.

METHODVol-au-VentMakes 8-12, depending on size.
These aren't hard to make, but they take a little skill. The key here is to roll out the pastry evenly, and to keep the size of your cutter in mind so you don't waste and pastry (i.e. if your pastry is 3.5 times the width of your cutter, you will waste pastry). You can't re-roll the scraps like you can with with pie pastry.

Don't cut out too much of the middle or the sides will sag,

as you see here. Still tasty, though!

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

1. Roll the chilled dough out 1/4" thick on a lightly floured surface. Cut out as many shapes as you can (you want an even number). Cut out the centres from half of them. These will be the tops.

These are the cutters I used

2. Place the bottoms on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Lightly brush with soy milk. making sure you get all the way to the edges. Prick the bottoms several times with a fork.

3. Place the tops on the bottoms and gently press them down so that the two layers adhere. Gently brush the tops with soy milk.

4. Bake for 20 mins, then reduce heat to 350, rotate pan, and bake for 8-10 mins, until golden all over.
5. Remove pastry to a cooling rack. While pastry is still warm, scrape the pastry out of the middle with a fork. Let fully cool before filling.

(So, what do you do with the pastry scraps? I bake them for 20 mins at 425, then toss in cinnamon and sugar while still warm.)Savoury Lentil Filling
1. Bring the 3 cups of water to a boil. Add lentils, reduce heat to med-hi, and boil for 5-6 mins, until lentils soften and begin to expand. They will be whitish around the edges but still have red centres. Drain and set aside.
2. While lentils are cooking, heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Gently sauté shallots, garlic, and celery for 5-7 mins, until golden and translucent.
3. Add carrot, mushrooms, and apple. Cook for about 5 mins, until mushrooms begin to release their water and the apples begin to soften.
4. Add fennel, sage, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cook for 1 min, until fragrant.
5. Add soy sauce and 1/4 of the vegetable stock. Cook until liquid reduces down.
6. Add drained lentils, and the remaining 1/2 cup of stock. Mix well, then cook, uncovered, for about 10 mins, until liquid has almost all reduced, apples are cooked, and lentil are soft but not cooked into a paste. Stir regularly. Season to taste. Add more veg stock if you need more cooking time. Don't dry out the mixture too much.
7. Fill vol-au-vent while mixture is still warm. Top with ginger applesauce and serve.

Ginger Applesauce
1. Melt margarine over medium heat and sauté ginger for 1 min.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to bubbling. Reduce heat to med-lo, cover, and cook for about 10 mins, stirring regularly, until apples are soft but still hold their shape.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Ah, quick laminated pastry dough. How I love thee. This is the recipe that inspired my experimentation with making easy croissants. It is really easy and produces a remarkably flaky pastry for the amount of time it takes to make. Again, the lamination process is super fast and the end result, while not as light and flaky as the classic method, will totally impress all of your friends. Puff pastry recipes to follow in later posts!

METHOD
1. Whisk together flour(s) and salt.
2. Use a pastry cutter to cut the fat into the flour. There should be largish chunks of fat visible--don't cut it down too much.

3. Sprinkle water over the flour/fat mixture and gently mix together with a wooden spoon (you don't want to mash the fat chunks too much). When you can't incorporate any more flour in, use your hands to gather together a dough ball. Press/squeeze the flour mixture together to form a dough, rather than kneading. The final dough will be sticky.
4. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Flour the top of the dough.

Roll into a rectangle, about 7x16 inches. Make sure everything stays well-floured--keep checking under the dough to make sure it is not sticking. Square everything up by pressing the dough into the side of a pastry scraper.

5. Fold the top down to the middle, and the bottom to the middle. Fold in half. Use the pasty scraper to square everything up.

6. Rotate dough 90 degrees (see pic at the top of this post) and repeat step 5.7. Wrap dough in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before using.

As you can see, I am back blogging. Life is still busy here, but I really missed creating and posting new recipes. I have all the wonderful people I met at the Atlanta VegFest to thank for getting me back in the Vegan Dad groove. I was amazed that so many people knew who Vegan Dad was, still loved the blog, still followed the Facebook page, and who still (despite the explosion of vegan blogs and cookbooks in the past few years) wanted me to post new recipes. I also had the great fortune to eat lunch and dinner with Isa in Athens (thanks, Janet!). She has been a supporter of the blog since the very beginning and is a source of vegan inspiration. So, I'm back. I'll probably only get a few posts off a month until the book manuscript is in (not a cookbook, I am sorry to say). Thanks for sticking with me, and let's eat some good food!

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

I thought I would squeak in one last recipe before American Thanksgiving just in case you aren't sure what you are making this year. I love this method for roasting veggies because it produces a dish reminiscent of the Sunday roasts of my youth. The potatoes are my absolute favourite. All of this can be made in one pan, so it makes for a less busy holiday kitchen. The real key here is the cast iron skillet, so if you don't have one go borrow one.

METHODRoasted VeggiesPreheat oven to 400 degrees
1. Heat a large 14" cast iron skillet over med-hi heat. Melt margarine, then saute leeks, shallots, and onion for 5-7 mins, until nice browned and golden. Add garlic and thyme and saute for 1 min.
2. Add veggies and mix well to coat. Cook veggies for 5 mins, stirring regularly to heat through. Add broth and cook for another 5 mins, stirring regularly. Season to taste.
3. Place pan in the oven, uncovered. Roast veggies for about 45 mins, stirring about every 10 mins, until veggies are golden and tender and broth has reduced.

Tofu with Orange Cranberry Jus
1. While veggies are roasting, salt and pepper both sides of the tofu. Set aside.
2. When veggies are done roasting, remove thyme stems, transfer veggies to a serving bowl and keep warm in the oven.
3. Without cleaning the pan, return it to the stove over med-hi heat. Melt margarine and add tofu. Fry on each side for 3-5 mins, until golden. Add 1/2 cup of the broth, then sprinkle pepper and poultry spice over the tofu. Mix around and flip tofu, deglazing the pan until the broth has reduced.
4. Add another 1/2 cup of broth and mix around and flip tofu until broth has reduced. Remove tofu from pan to a serving dish.
5. Increase heat to high. Add remaining 1 cup of broth, cranberries, sugar, and orange juice. Add broth reduces, mash the cranberries. Reduce by about a third, season to taste, then spoon over the top of the tofu.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Vegan croissants are nothing new since the invention of butter substitutes that act and bake very much like their dairy counterpart. The problem is that the croissant-making process is pretty laborious and takes a certain amount of skill to pull off so you don't end up with margarine squirting out from between your layers of dough and making a huge mess. I speak from experience. But what if you could make croissants with minimal skill and only about 45 mins of prep time? Wouldn't that mean that all of us could frolic in fields of flaky pastry and French-inspired carbohydrate goodness? Yes! Yes, it would! Well, the dream is a reality: these croissants are both easy and tasty. Sure, they are not exactly like a real croissant, but I am willing to trade time and ease for some flakiness and lightness. The worst thing that can happen is that you end up with the tastiest bun you've ever eaten.

Now, this recipe still takes time, but it is lazy, waiting around time. Actually prep time is comparatively minimal.

There are four things that make this recipe work. First, instant yeast. Only instant yeast can dissolve and raise the dough under these conditions. Second, you need to keep things cold. Warming things up before the final rise will mean greasy croissants with less rise. Third, keep things well-floured. Finally, keep in mind that you are not making a pie. Don't be afraid of bigger chunks of fat.

You can use all-purpose or bread flour. The former will give you a softer dough that is easy to work with, the second will give you a better gluten structure and more rise. I like a half and half mix of the two. You can also play around with the fat you want to use. The pictures here used a mix of shortening and coconut oil--it was less successful (you can see the chunks of coconut oil in the dough that never really flattened out) but still perfectly passable and edible. You want cold but pliable chunks of fat that will roll out without ripping your dough and tearing the layers. If you are using a rather soft fat, like Crisco or the like, I recommend keeping it in the freezer. The great thing is that unlike the traditional method, these croissants can be made with softer fats with pretty good results.

METHOD
1. Whisk together flour, salt, sugar, and yeast.
2. Cut margarine/shortening into chunks and put in flour. Using a pasty cutter, gently incorporate the fat into the flour. You want to leave chunks of fat the size of large peas.
3. Drizzle the soy milk and water over the flour/fat mixture and gently incorporate with a silicon spatula. The dough will be sticky. When all of the liquid has been evenly incorporated, cover the bowl and place in the fridge overnight, and for up to three days.
4. On baking day, remove the dough from the fridge. It will have risen some in the cold, and will be sticky and spongy. Like so:

From here you will need about 3-4 hours to finish the bake. On a well-floured surface, and after flouring the top of the dough, pat the dough into a rectangle.

5. With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 7x15. The key to evenly rolled dough is to start in the centre and roll out towards each of the four corners. Square off the corners as best you can.

6. Now the laminating: fold the top edge down to the middle, and the bottom edge up to the middle.

Then, fold in half along the middle line.

Side profile:

7. Rotate 90 degrees so that the folded edge is on your left. Keeping everything adequately floured, Roll dough out into another 7x15 rectangle and repeat step 6. Rotate 90 degrees and repeat step 6 again. By now, the dough will have firmed up. If the dough bounces back too much, let it rest a few minutes before continuing to roll it out.
8. Cover the dough and let rest at room temperature for 30 mins.
9. Keeping everything adequately floured, gently roll the dough into a 9x16 rectangle.
10. Working along the long side, notch the dough every 4 inches. Do the same on the opposing side, starting two inches in from the edge.

11. Cut the dough into triangles by connecting the notches. I find a pizza cutter works really well for this. There will be some scrap pieces on either side.

12. This part takes a little finesse. Gently stretch the base of the triangle, then gently pull the tip of the triangle to extend the croissant's length. If the underside it too floury, dust off as much as you can.

Start rolling from the base to the tip. Anchor the tip to the counter with your finger so you can gently pull back on the base as you roll the croissant. Make sure the tip is on the bottom and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Tuck in the ends to get the crescent shape. You can make mini croissants with the end scraps.

13. Loosely cover the croissants with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for about 2.5 hours, until well-swelled.
14. Heat oven to 350 degrees, Bake for 15 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for anther 15 mins until croissants are evenly golden.
15. Let cool for 1 hour, and enjoy! These croissants freeze very well.